Ypres
Ypres (
French, pronounced "Ä"pr[É™]", generally used in English
1) or
Ieper (official name in the local
Dutch, pronounced "YĀ-pər") is a
municipality located in
Flanders, one of the three regions of
Belgium, and in the
Flemish province of
West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Ypres and the towns of
Boezinge,
Brielen,
Dikkebus,
Elverdinge,
Hollebeke,
Sint-Jan,
Vlamertinge,
Voormezele,
Zillebeke and
Zuidschote. On
January 1 2006 Ypres had a total population of 34,897.The total area is 130.61
km² which gives a
population density of 267 inhabitants per km².
It is an ancient town, and is known to have been raided by the
Romans in the first century BC [
1]. During the
Middle Ages, Ypres was a prosperous city with a population of 40,000,
[See chapter 5.6.2 (in Dutch)] renowned for its
linen trade with England. It was the hometown of
William of Ypres, a commander of Flemish mercenaries in England who was reckoned among the more able of the military commanders fighting for
King Stephen in his prolonged civil war with the
Empress Matilda.
In order to prosper and maintain its wealth, Ypres had to be fortified to keep out invaders. Parts of the early ramparts, dating from 1385, still survive near the Rijselpoort (Lille Gate). The famous
Cloth Hall was built in the thirteenth century. During this time also, cats, then the symbol of the devil and witchcraft, were thrown off the cloth hall to get rid of evil demons. Today, this act is commemorated with a quadrennial
Cat Parade through town.
Over time, the earthworks were replaced by sturdier masonry and earthen structures and a partial
moat. Ypres was further fortified in 17th and 18th centuries while under the occupation of the
Hapsburgs and the
French. Major works were completed at the end of the 17th century by the French military engineer
Sebastien Le Prestre, Seigneur de Vauban.
During
World War I, Ypres was the centre of intense and sustained battles between the
German and the
British Empire forces. The town was all but obliterated by the artillery fire. After the war the town was rebuilt with the main square, including the Cloth Hall and town hall being rebuilt as close to the original designs as possible. (The rest of the rebuilt town is more modern in appearance.) The Cloth Hall is today a museum dedicated to Ypres's role in the First World War.
Ypres these days has the title of "city of peace" and maintains a close friendship with another town on which war had a profound impact:
Hiroshima. The association may be regarded as somewhat gruesome due to the fact that both towns witnessed mankind at its worst: Ypres was one of the first places where
chemical warfare was
employed, while Hiroshima suffered the debut of
nuclear warfare.
Ypres also maintains jumelages (close partnerships) with
Sittingbourne (
Kent, since 1964),
Siegen (
Westfalen, since 1967) and
Saint-Omer (
Pas-de-Calais, since 1969).
|
The fountain in the Grote Markt, Ieper, opposite the Cloth Hall. |
Ypres was a key position during
World War I because it stood in the path of Germany's planned sweep across the rest of Belgium and into France from the North. The German army formed a
salient around the city, bombarding it from nearly all sides throughout much of the war. To counterattack, British, French and allied forces made costly advances from the town of Ypres into the German lines on the surrounding hills.
In the
First Battle of Ypres (
October 31 to
November 22,
1914) the British captured the town from the Germans. In the
Second Battle of Ypres (
April 22 to
May 25,
1915) the Germans used
poison gas for the first time on the
Western Front (they had used it earlier at the
Battle of Bolimow on
January 1,
1915) and captured high ground east of the town. The first gas attack occurred against a force of mostly colonial soldiers from French Africa. The gas used was
Chlorine gas.
Mustard gas, also called
Yperite from the name of this city, was also used for the first time near Ypres in the autumn of 1917.
Of the battles, the largest, best-known, and most costly in human suffering was the
Third Battle of Ypres (
July 21 to
November 6,
1917, also known as the
Battle of Passchendaele) in which the British, Canadians and
ANZAC forces recaptured the Passchendaele ridge east of the city at a terrible cost of lives. After months of fighting, this battle resulted in nearly half a million casualties to all sides, and only several miles of ground won by Allied forces.
English-speaking soldiers in that war often referred to Ypres by the (perhaps humorous) mispronunciation "Wipers". British soldiers even self-published a wartime newspaper called the "
Wipers Times."
War graves, both of the Allied side and the Central Powers, cover the landscape around Ypres. The countryside around Ypres is featured in the famous poem by
John McCrae,
In Flanders Fields.
Menin Gate
The
Menin Gate Memorial;
2 in Ypres is dedicated to the soldiers with no known graves who fell on the
Ypres Salient during the First World War and whose bodies are still buried on the battlefields around Ypres. The memorial's location is especially poignant as it lies on the eastward route from the town which allied soldiers would have taken towards the fighting - many never to return. Every evening since 1928, traffic around the imposing arches of the Menin Gate Memorial has been stopped while the
Last Post is sounded beneath the Gate. This tribute is given in honour of the memory of
British Empire soldiers who fought and died there.
The ceremony was prohibited by occupying German forces during the Second World War, but it was resumed on the very evening of liberation —
6 September,
1944 — notwithstanding the heavy fighting that still went on in other parts of the town.
:"Who will remember, passing through this Gate,:The unheroic Dead who fed the guns?"
:--
Siegfried Sassoon,
On Passing the Menin Gate*
Jacob Clemens non Papa (ca.
1510-
1556),
Renaissance composer*
Cornelius Jansen (
1585-
1638),
bishop of Ypres and father of the
Jansenism*
Renaat Landuyt (b.
1958),
politician, Belgian minister
*
Yves Leterme (b.
1960), politician, Flemish minister-president
*
Lernout & Hauspie, founders of the infamous speech technology company of the same name
*
Jules Malou (
1810-
1886), politician,
Prime Minister of Belgium from
1871 to
1878 and in
1884*
Official website - Information available in
Dutch and limited information available in
English*
In Flanders Fields Museum1 The
Flemish language was restricted by the
French-speaking Belgian ruling class at the time of the
First World War so that as a result the French name was used by British soldiers fighting there—they however, pronounced it "Wipers," probably as a result of poor education in pronunciation of the French language rather than any deliberate humour.
2 The gate is called "Menin Gate" because it is situated on the road to another Flemish city,
Menin in
French or a (depricated) variant name in
English,
Menen in
Dutch or
English.
